During cold or winter-like conditions, commercial parking lots and roadways typically have deicing salt applied to their surfaces by contractors with tailgate and vee box salt spreaders. Typically, certain aspects of handling and spreading salt with conventional vee box and tailgate spreaders are inefficient and unsafe, as well as impractical for some operators.
At approximately an eight to ten cubic foot maximum capacity, conventional tailgate spreaders typically do not hold enough material to cover a desired or targeted area, and therefore require the operator to refill the hopper frequently during the salting operation. This refilling process is often performed in the darkness of early morning or late night, and often during inclement weather. While stopping to refill the hopper is time consuming, it also may be a hazard to the operator to climb in and out of the truck bed under these conditions to perform this task. Reports of injuries sustained by this activity are not uncommon.
Many contractors, lacking a facility to store bulk salt and/or a loading method, would likely prefer to stay in the truck cab and increase their operating efficiency by having a larger capacity tailgate spreader. However, due to the over-slung position of conventional tailgate spreaders, it is typically impractical if not impossible to significantly increase the volume or weight capacity of such tailgate spreaders.
Vee box spreaders on the other hand typically have a much larger capacity, thereby increasing efficiency and avoiding the requirement that the operator make frequent stops to refill or service the equipment, thus reducing the exposure to injury. However, while tailgate spreaders utilize bagged salt, vee box spreaders are designed to utilize loose bulk material, requiring both a storage area and a means of loading the salt into the spreader box. Also, such vee box spreaders extend substantially upward above the truck bed and restrict or even substantially block the rearward view of the driver of the vehicle.
Other types of equipment for spreading or moving or collecting material or dirt or debris may be transported and carried by a separate vehicle or trailer. Thus, if a person wants to spread salt during the winter months and perform other functions during the summer months, such as collect leaves or grass or clean road surfaces or the like, separate vehicles or trailers are typically necessary to carry out the different functions.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a material handling or spreading device or assembly which overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art.